1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ball pickup devices.
2. General Background of the Invention
Tennis balls are usually sold in cylindrical cans containing three balls. These cans were at one time made of metal, but more recently are made of clear plastic. The cans have a first, open end and a second, closed end, and are pressurized and sealed with a metal pop-top. A removal flexible plastic cap is removably fitted on the first end, over the metal pop-top, to hold the balls in the container when the metal pop-top is removed.
Various devices to pick up balls have been proposed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,045,068; 4,063,769; 4,088,251; 4,522,438; and 4,629,235 (tennis ball retrievers); and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,412,897; 3,901,545; and 4,058,336 (golf ball retrievers). Most of these devices are quite complex and expensive to manufacture, and are not capable of being easily pressurized.
Prior to the present invention, there was no ball pickup device simple and inexpensive enough to also function as a packaging container for tennis balls.